Successful Practices & Strategies Vol. 3 | No. 3

New Castle County Police Department 

Wilmington, Delaware 

http://www.nccpd.com 

Community policing element 

Problem solving and organizational 

transformation 

Problem/issue 

A need to decrease crime and the fear it causes 

in our communities within authorized budget 

and staffing levels. 

Problem description 

With stagnant crime rates and a reduced workforce due to attrition and the economic downturn, a 

new method of policing was needed to better serve all community members. It was believed that by 

returning to a proactive style of community policing focusing on quality-of-life concerns reported by 

our neighborhoods would prevent larger crimes from occurring. 

Community policing strategies implemented 

Targeted analytic policing system (TAPS) maps are created on a weekly basis. This style of policing 

approach is working in New Castle County. Our officers are armed with these maps along with attending 

weekly operations meetings. This enables our officers and police commanders to address the most 

serious crimes occurring in New Castle County. 

With the commanders of every section of the police department in attendance, their various areas of 

expertise are drawn upon to determine the best methods to address each hot spot. Each commander 

considers available resources and discusses and decides which methods are best to address the issues. 

These approaches include, but are not limited to, assigning officers to the community, utilizing 

specialized units such as the Mounted Patrol to patrol the area, directing officers from the Patrol 

Division to team up and maintain a presence in the community, assigning undercover officers, having 

the Community Services Unit intervene, and considering property abatement. 

Change and/or impact as a result of these community policing efforts 

Overall crime in New Castle County decreased by 8.2 percent from 2013 to 2014. Moreover, overall 

crime was down by 16.1 percent over the course of 2012 to 2014. Our in-progress, quality-of-life 

complaints were down 11.5 percent from 2012 to 2014. Also, the overall dispatched calls for service 
were down 9.9 percent. Compared to 2013, vehicle theft was down 12.6 percent in 2014, theft was 

down 13.8 percent, assaults were down 6.5 percent, burglaries were down 3.2 percent, and robberies 

were down 1.6 percent. Additional officers allowed us to make an impact in the communities we serve. 

The results of the TAPS program were impressive. Crime decreased by 16.1 percent in the first and the 

second year after this style of policing was implemented into our everyday policing philosophy. 

Lessons learned through program implementation 

The department had found was that quality-of-life calls—which include reports of disorderly subjects, 

speeding cars, loud radios, suspicious persons or vehicles, fights, people loitering on a street corner, 

and reported drug dealing, along with property crime—were among the top concerns of our 

community members and political leaders. If these relatively minor issues were left unchecked, it was 

believed that they would grow into more serious crimes. This information confirmed what was already 

suspected, that traditional reactive 911-driven policing was failing. The agency had to get officers off of 

the “911 treadmill” of responding to crimes that had already occurred or where someone had already 

been victimized and instead find ways to proactively police our communities. Based on this information, 

Setting implemented the TAPS system. The TAPS goal was simple: address the low-level quality-of-life 

issues plaguing communities and more serious and violent crime would subsequently also decrease. 

Colonel Setting, who had come on as chief in December 2012, set the additional goal of double-digit 

decreases in crime and calls for service and to address what our community members were telling us 

mattered most to them. The challenge was to develop innovative ways to attack these quality-of-life 

crimes while staying within the current budget and staffing levels. 

The results of TAPS were impressive, with double-digit decreases in most crime categories. We have 

seen a 15.5 percent decrease in overall crime as compared to the overall crime in June2014 and a 35.3 

percent decrease since before TAPS was implemented. In addition, TAPS has been improved with a 

focus on property crimes, which are a top reported concern of our communities. This effort has led to a 

36.7 percent reduction in burglaries, a 26.4 percent reduction in thefts, and a 22.6 percent reduction in 

vehicle thefts. 

We remain grateful for the support and guidance that the COPS Office has provided. The COPS Office 

continues to play an important role in providing critical resources that are needed to improve upon 

these impressive results and allow for even greater service to our communities. 

The opinions contained herein are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily represent the official position or policies of the 

U.S. Department of Justice. References to specific agencies, companies, products, or services should not be considered an 

endorsement by the author(s) or the U.S. Department of Justice. Rather, the references are illustrations to supplement 

discussion of the issues. 

The Internet references cited in this document were valid as of the date of publication. Given that URLs and websites are in 

constant flux, neither the author(s) nor the Office of Community Oriented Policing Services can vouch for their current validity. 

Published 2016